The Russian-Ukrainian conflict has lasted for almost 7 months and the Russian Army has used all its existing weapons, except nuclear weapons. So what other major Russian weapon could change the course of the war?
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has been going on for more than 200 days, literally all the conventional weapons have been used by the Russian Army on the Ukrainian battlefield. So which of Russia’s “big killers” hasn’t come out yet?
Before the conflict broke out, the Russian army was known as the “Army of Artillery”. As a result, when the Ukrainian Army put into use the HIMARS missile, the Russian ammunition depot continuously exploded, and the anti-aircraft radar was also blown up. Every day thousands of Russian cannons fired simultaneously but failed to eliminate the Ukrainian artillery.
The global satellite navigation system GLONASS, which Russia claims to be the four major satellite navigation systems in the world (along with GPS of the US, Beidou of China, and Galileo of Europe), is known for its accuracy. GLONASS position accuracy is 5-10m while GPS is 3.5-7.8m
But public opinion is asking why the Shahed-136 UAV (Russia imported from Iran) and the Russian Air Force Su-34 fighter, are still using the GPS navigation system, or the civilian version of the system. GPS positioning, not GLONASS.
The Russian Air Force claims to own the skies over Ukraine, as a result, almost 7 months since the war began, the Russian Air Force has never been able to cut off the supply lines of the Ukrainian army in the Donbas region. Several important Ukrainian military bridges on the Dnieper River have so far been unobstructed.
In terms of front-line fire support, it is also rare to see Russian Air Force fighters taking off on the battlefield. Even US-made M113 armored vehicles, which aid the Ukrainian army, can be “very active” on the battlefield.
The most common example is the 10 engagements the Russian army fought in Lugansk across the River Siverskyi Donets, when each time Ukrainian artillery was able to overwhelm the Russian troops attempting to cross the river. The Russian Air Force has attempted to assault the Ukrainian army’s artillery positions ten times, but has never been successful.
Before the conflict broke out, Russia claimed to have a variety of unmanned combat devices, including small UAVs and ground fighting robots. But in fact, after nearly 7 months of conflict, the Russian Army can only rely on the Orlan-10 UAV, to act as a front-line reconnaissance aircraft and is also considered Russia’s most successful UAV.
Before the conflict, it was said that the Russian electronic warfare system, could suppress the enemy’s GPS signal; even jamming the electronic warfare systems of cruisers as well as NATO reconnaissance aircraft.
As a result, on the battlefield, Ukraine’s GPS was used “with great pleasure” and “with ease”. Even commercial UAVs of Ukraine are flying “overhead” and are equipped with bombs, directly destroying many Russian electronic warfare systems.
The Dagger hypersonic missile was advertised by Russia as having “unparalleled power” and “invincible” at 10 times the speed of sound. When a hypersonic Dagger missile was launched, it was even hailed as “the first real war of hypersonic weapons”.
If anyone wondered what #crashed today in #russian Stavropol' region injuring 6 firefighters, you'd be very much surprised to know that it wasn't a "Ukrainian UAV", but a russian #Kinzhal missile. pic.twitter.com/QULK8kt2gJ
— LotA (@LotA_IL) September 14, 2022
After several months of fighting, the Dagger hypersonic missile hit only one or two of Ukraine’s ammunition depots, not as much as the HIMARS rocket launchers that the US aided Ukraine, which hit dozens of Russian ammunition depots. Even some Dagger hypersonic missile failed to reach the target.
Before the start of the conflict, Russia claimed that its missile cruisers could intercept US aircraft carriers and anti-ship missiles; at the same time can launch heavy supersonic anti-ship missiles, to attack US nuclear aircraft carriers at a distance of hundreds of kilometers but in real war failed to intercept subsonic cold war era missile and sank.
Before the conflict, anti-aircraft missile systems such as Tor-M2, Buk-M2, S-300, S-350 and S-400 were all full-fledged short, medium and long-range air defense operations; Threats range from F-22 stealth fighters to Apache armed helicopters and cruise missiles.
#Ukraine: A valuable Russian 48Ya6-K1 Podlet-K1 low-altitude S-band surveillance radar was destroyed by a Ukrainian rocket strike on Nova Kakhovka, #Kherson Oblast. It appears that M31A1 guided rockets were used. pic.twitter.com/eNTxyrJZNX
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) July 19, 2022
But many of the Ukrainian air defense missiles, now destroyed by AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles mounted on Su-27 and Ukrainian MiG-29 fighters; even the latest anti-stealth radar of the Russian military in Crimea was destroyed.
The Russian army has stun bombs, 1-ton, 3 ton bombs and even super bombs to 7 tons, the “father of all bombs”; all have extremely powerful destructive power, but it plays no tactical role in actual combat.
On the first day of the war in the Donbas direction, the position of the Ukrainian army was on the Marinka line, 20 km from the starting position of the Russian attack. After nearly 7 months of fighting on the eastern Donbass front, the advancing distance of the Russian army is still less than 20 km; Marinka is still standing.
Some say that Russia is currently up against dozens of countries, and they’ve done a great job getting there like this. In fact, the US and the West have only given Ukraine more than 16 HIMARS launchers, more than 100 M777 towed howitzers, and more than 100 self-propelled howitzers.
If the support of Western weapons is really “liberated” from the fear of escalation, that means Ukraine can receive 100 F-16 fighters, 30 A-10 attack aircraft, dozens of large Reaper UAVs, 300 M109 self-propelled guns and 200 M1 tanks, 20 sets of Patriot air defense missiles; It is very likely that the game will be completely reversed.